New York — New York (AFP) – Two luxury real estate brokers Their brother is scheduled to go on trial in New York City on sex trafficking charges on Tuesday, just days after their lawyers renewed their request to a New York judge to dismiss charges that they sexually assaulted dozens of women over a period of twelve years.
Jury selection was expected to last about two days, and opening statements are scheduled for next Monday for the trial, which is expected to last until early March.
In papers filed in Manhattan federal court on Saturday, defense attorneys complained that prosecutors treated their clients unfairly by rewriting the indictment last week and recently adding charges that the defense did not have time to investigate.
The latest version of the indictment was filed Thursday, marking the third time in two months that prosecutors have updated the indictment that accuses Oren, Tal and Alon Alexander of showering the women with free travel and luxury accommodations before drugging and raping them in vacation destinations like the Hamptons in New York.
Oren and Tal Alexander were luxury real estate moguls for more than a decade before they co-founded a real estate company, Official, that specialized in high-end properties in Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Oren and Alon Alexander are twins who are 38 years old while Tal Alexander is 39 years old. Alon, who attended law school, was an executive in his family’s security company.
Defense lawyers acknowledge that the men had sex with the women, but say the women were willing to participate. The brothers have been held without bail since their December 2024 arrest in Miami, where they were living. The three have risen again and again He pleaded not guilty For all counts.
Prosecutors say the brothers typically met their victims via dating apps, through social events, at bars and nightclubs, and sometimes through party promoters before offering them drugs, including cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms, or spiking their drinks before sexually assaulting them.
Defense attorneys urged Judge Valerie E. Caproni has decided to drop some charges from consideration in this month’s trial if not drop them entirely, including a conspiracy charge in which the description of the charge has been greatly reduced.
“The defense should not be forced to go to trial on a conspiracy charge that was changed at the last minute,” the attorneys wrote.
Caproni showed some sympathy with the defense’s protest over the changes to the indictment at the 11th hour. She on Friday denied a request by the government on Jan. 12 to call a witness at trial to support the conspiracy charge, saying the request came after an Oct. 17 deadline for the defense to notify the evidence in the case.
Caproni He also ruled That Alun Alexander was unable to use his 2019 engagement and subsequent marriage as evidence that he had renounced the alleged plot to sexually assault women.
The attorneys also objected to Orrin Alexander being forced to stand trial on short notice on a charge of sexual exploitation of a minor that could result in a mandatory prison sentence of at least 15 years if convicted.
Prosecutors allege that in April 2009, Oren Alexander persuaded or coerced an incapacitated woman, aged 17 years and 10 months, to engage in sexually explicit conduct that could be photographed. Defense lawyers say her birth certificate cannot be certified because it was issued by a former Soviet republic now located in a war zone.
Defense attorneys also attacked the premise of the government’s sex trafficking charges, saying prosecutors took the unprecedented position that anything of value given to women to take them to a place where a sex act occurred could make commercial sex punishable under sex trafficking law.
“The truth is that this is not just a new theory; it is an entirely new crime, one not created by Congress and not even remotely contemplated under sex trafficking law,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported last week that a 45-year-old Australian woman who accused Orrin and Alon Alexander of sexual assault was found dead near Sydney late last year. The newspaper said a spokesman for the New South Wales Coroner’s Office said the death was considered “non-suspicious.”
